Band: Papa Roach
Release: The Connection (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
Elements of hip-hop, rock, nu-metal and everything in-between can be found scattered on Papa Roach’s latest album ‘The Connection’. It even has a single where the vocalist Jacoby Shaddix disintegrating a zombie, and things can’t get more awesome than that, until everything goes haywire just after halfway through…
The general musical direction of the album is nowhere, there isn’t a specific genre you can place it. On top of that, they resort to anthemic choruses and solos on about every track, but let’s not be critical about it.
‘Still Swinging’ is a fist pumping track, filled with groovy riffs and hip hop basslines by Tobin Esperance’s programming wizardry. Splitting from that, ‘Where did the Angels Go’ is a more heavier track, spiced with a bit of synth and pop-like hooks that makes this album so accessible to people unfamiliar with the band. ‘Before I Die’ is yet another beautiful track that erupts from nowhere, with fantastic guitar work and Jacoby giving the same perfect vocal performance as he does throughout the album.
The album then becomes rather tiresome by including the same generic formula for the chorus to be as infectiously anthemic as possible before the charm fades, even the straight-up rock ‘Breathe You In’ barely saves the remainder of the album, with ‘Leader of Broken Hearts’ being a cliché of itself and letting down the overall tone of the album. Soon afterwards, ‘Walking Dead’, ‘Won’t Let Up’ and ‘As Far As I Remember’ lose interest by beginning with synths and tiringly trudging through until the end of the album.
There were high hopes here for Papa Roach, certainly after hearing the first few tracks that are of top standard, everything somehow goes into decline apart from Jacoby’s vocals that seem to be the main thing to keep it all going. Other than that, it sounds like an album that may only have the couple of good songs on there that would make people buy it. ‘The Connection’ is just another disappointingly average album.
6/10
Reviewer: Connor Flello
6/10
